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A  Statement  Concerning 

Faith  and  Order 
of  the 

Seventh  Day  Baptist 
'  Churches  ' 


AMERICAN  SABBATH  TRACT  SOCIETY 
(Seventh  Day  Baptist) 
Plainfield  New  Jersey 


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A  Statement  Concerning 

FAITH  AND  ORDER 

of  the  Seventh  Day  Baptist  Churches 

The  following  statements  were  prepared 
by  the  Seventh  Day  Baptist  General  Con¬ 
ference  Committee  on  Faith  and  Order 
Movement  at  the  request  of  the  North 
American  Preparation  Committee  of  the 
World  Conference  on  Faith  and  Order.  The 
Committee  says,  “We  believe  it  is  an  es¬ 
sentially  correct  account  of  the  views  of 
Seventh  Day  Baptists  concerning  Christian 
Faith  and  Order.” 


I. 

The  following  statements  are,  we  trust, 
in  substantial  harmony  with  the  faith  of 
modern  Protestantism: 

1.  God  is  the  eternal  and  perfect 
Spirit,  the  creator,  sustainer,  and  ruler 

of  all  things. 

2.  Man,  in  his  higher  nature,  is  the 
image  of  his  Maker,  and  is  capable  of 
everlasting  blessedness. 

3.  Sin  is  alienation  from  God,  opposi¬ 
tion  to  his  holy  will,  transgression  of  his 
laws. 

4.  Salvation  and  the  life  eternal  come 
by  the  grace  of  God,  through  repentance 
and  faith,  and  in  loyalty  to  Jesus  Christ, 
who  was  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  the 


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Son  of ‘  God,  who  lived,  suffered,  died, 
was  raised  from  the  dead,  and  ever  liveth, 
our  Savior  and  Lord. 

5.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  God  alwavs  at 
work  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  men 
seeking  to  lead  us  toward  perfection  in 
individual  righteousness  and  social  jus¬ 
tice. 

6.  The  Bible  is  an  inspired  record  of 
men^s  progressive  understanding  of  God, 
who  is  revealed  in  nature,  history,  and 
experience, — the  supreme  revelation  of 
his  character  and  will  being  through 
Jesus  Christ  his  Son,  the  center  of  the 
holy  Book. 

7.  Wherever  the  will  of  God  is  done 
there  is  his  kingdom,  and  the  new  spirit¬ 
ual  life.  This  kingdom  is  heavenly  in 
origin  and  nature,  and  is  destined  to 
triumph  and  last  forever. 

8.  The  work  of  the  Church,  which  is 
an  organized  revelation  to  the  world  of 
the  kingdom  of  God,  is  evangelism,  the 
administration  of  the  ordinances  of  bap¬ 
tism  and  the  Lord’s  Supper,  Christian 
culture  and  training,  social  service,  and 
missions. 

9.  All  who  accept  Jesus  Christ  as 
Savior  and  Lord,  in  all  lands,  constitute 
the  holy  catholic  or  universal  Church. 


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IL 

The  following  statements  suggest  some 
denominational  differences  in  matters  of 
religion : 

1.  An  organized  body  of  believers  in 
Christ  is  a  church.  As  an  organization 
it  is  quite  independent,  save  as  it  shall 
elect,  for  purposes  of  fraternity  and  ef¬ 
ficiency,  to  become  a  unit  of  a  larger 
whole. 

2.  All  true  believers  constitute  a  uni¬ 
versal  and  holy  priesthood;  but  for  the 
sake  of  promoting  evangelism,  spiritual 
edification,  and  Christian  service,  the 
church  ordains  chosen  persons  to  the 
Christian  ministry  and  the  diaconate. 

3.  Christian  baptism  is  the  immersion 
in  water  of  believers ;  and  is  a  symbol  and 
pledge  of  our  new  and  risen  life  in 
Christ. 

4.  The  holy  Supper,  instituted  by  our 
Lord,  is  a  spiritual  communion  and 
covenant  of  the  church,  his  Body,  with 
him  who  gave  himself  for  us,  and  who 
now  gives  himself  to  us  in  the  power  of 
an  endless  life. 

5.  We  believe  in  ‘'the  coming  of 
Christ,’^  “the  resurrection,”  “the  judg¬ 
ment,”  and  “the  end  of  the  world” ;  but 
some  among  us  interpret  these  events 


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literally;  while  others  find  in  them  only 
an  ethical  and  spiritual  meaning. 

III. 

The  one  truth  that  has  seemed  to  us  to 
justify  our  separate  denominational  ex¬ 
istence  is  the  Sabbath  doctrine. 

The  great  ancient  religions  had  sacred 
times;  but  it  was  the  Hebrew  lawgivers 
and  prophets  alone  who  held  to  holy  days 
in  connection  with  ethical  monotheism. 

Whatever  the  historical  origin  of  the 
Sabbath  in  the  course  of  the  gradual  de¬ 
velopment  of  religious  ideas,  it  is  a  con¬ 
stituent  part  of  the  beautiful  story  of 
creation;  it  is  given  a  central  and  signi¬ 
ficant  place  in  the  Decalogue;  and  the 
prophets  set  great  store  by  its  spiritual 
and  social  value. 

The  New  Testament  does  not  seem  to 

us  to  abrogate  the  Sabbath  principle,  or 
substitute  a  different  day.  And  we  be¬ 
lieve  that  the  Bible,  history,  and  holy 
fitness  and  sentiment,  vindicate  the  right 
of  the  seventh  or  last  day  of  the  week 
to  be  the  supreme  time-symbol  of  our 
holy  religion,  and  the  one  sacred  means 
of  preserving  the  Sabbath  idea ;  a  weekly 
witness  for  Him  who  created  the  heavens 
and  the  earth;  and  a  visible  sign  of  the 
believer’s  rest  in  the  living  God. 


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We  go  to  our  Lord,  the  Church’s  su¬ 
preme  lawgiver,  who  said,  ‘The  sabbath 
was  made  for  man,  not  man  for  the  sab¬ 
bath,”  and  not  to  Mosaism  or  Levitical- 
ism,  for  the  final  sanction  of  the  Sabbath 
Day  itself,  and  to  learn  how  to  keep  it 
spiritually,  ethically,  and  socially. 

And  we  believe  that  the  Church  and 
the  world  greatly  need  the  Sabbath  of 
Christ  as  a  vehicle  of  divine  truth  and 
blessing. 


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